Hi,
I have just arrived at DOH on a flight from HKG in J. At check-in, I was told that only 6 people are booked into the business cabin, but that the flight is heavily overbooked. Therefor, they will most likely upgrade "a few passengers".

At the end, it turned out they upgraded a total of 18 (!!) passengers from Eco to Biz, out of which only 3 had status with QR. Everybody else was upgradede based on the good-will of the check-in team.

Sorry to say, but most people that got upgraded behaved very rude, acting like they are kings. The poor FA`s tried their best but some of my fellow pax just were never satisfied and kept keeping them busy, requesting more and more food and service.

So, today basically anybody could have been upgraded with a nice smile and some FT knowledge :)

How do op-ups/other upgrades USUALLY work on Qatar/Gulf/Emirates? :P

Similar to other airlines?

And I see Gulf has a lifetime status, do either Qatar or Emirates have one?

Can only speak for QR:
Op-Ups are usually only proceeded by your frequent flyer status. As QR is not a member of any alliance (yet), they will only op-up QMiles members.

What I have heard from a gate agent in HKG, in any other occasion (i.e. not enough QMiles elite members) they will more likely upgrade passengers that "fit" into the J cabin rather than by booking class.

But for yesterdays flight from HKG to DOH, I must say they did not make a lot of good picks. Some of the op-up passengers behaved really bad, like they were the super-dooper-frequent flyers and any FA had to kiss their feet.

Poor FA´s were really stressed and talked to me in the galley. I told them it would be a nice game to "spot the upgraded guest"....which was an easy thing to do :)

As I will be likely on the same flight during the next 2 weeks, it would be interesting to know, what A/C they are currently using.

Is it an A330 wiith only J/Y or F/J/Y and is it the new Business-Class?

The same info would be good for FRA DOH and v.v.

Thx, Martin

Sorry to hear about your experiences... I have lots of opup on my AY flight from HKG to HEL earlier this week too, and agreed that the HK agents seem to be random in choosing their opup candidates. Putting kids there is not a smart one, if you ask me.

Not sure about the new or old J, but HKG is served by two-class airbus A330s right now, with plan to upgrade to three class in the near future... I assume that will happen when QR begins to receive more a/c, and/or Ethiad starts its rumored HKG flight and/or EK adds more three-class a/c on its HKG-Dubai nonstop flights.

Carfield